New Business Development – Page 58

The Changing Children’s Market

Babies born to mothers
who had COVID during gestation
have smaller lungs.

Babies are also
being born with COVID.
They are born sick.
They are born with organ issues
and low energy
and immune system challenges.

Why am I telling you
this terrible news?

Because if your business’s
target market
is babies and/or kids,
this will influence
the products you design
and sell.

A significant number of
babies and/or kids
will be ill.
They will have their physical activities
severely restricted.

Toddlers, for example, won’t be running around
as constantly
as they do now.
But they might
still WANT to do that.

Knowledgable parents,
the type of parents
who buy products
for their kids,
will also likely
shield them
from places and activities
that might cause them
to catch an illness.

When you’re developing your products,
keep that in mind.
The children’s market
is significantly changing.

Money Isn’t Lost

It is the reality
of business building
that some businesses
won’t survive.

I once worked
for one of the largest
beverage companies in the world.
The company had over a century
of history
in developing products.
We spent millions of dollars
testing if a product
would work or not.

And fewer than
1 in 10 products
survived.

Business failure is tough
but it isn’t a failure of YOU.
It is just part of building businesses.

And it isn’t completely wasted
time or money or other resources.

One of the (many) things
that gives me peace
when products and companies fail
is…
the money invested
isn’t ever lost.
It is transferred.

It paid salaries, for example.
Someone put food
on their table
because we started that company.

It built other businesses,
as another example.
Suppliers were paid
and those funds
might have made a difference
in THOSE companies.

Even failed companies
contribute to the world.

Remember that.

Losing Options

A couple days ago,
I talked about
how we have choices
regarding the people
we associate with.

That’s true of people.

Going forward,
it will be less true
of other inputs.

In my city,
for example,
there’s a lettuce shortage.
Lettuce is
either extremely expensive
or it isn’t available
at all.

That means choice
at grocery stores
and at restaurants
is more limited.
The classic salad
with lettuce
is temporarily not a viable option
of a meal or side dish
for the average person.

As product developers,
it is helpful
if we factor in flexibility
of certain inputs
into our designs.

Maybe we allow chefs to
swap spinach for the lettuce
in the salads
(and offer two sets of menus,
one for the lettuce-based salad
and
one for the spinach-based salad).

Build some flexibility
into your products
because shortages WILL continue.
That is a certainty.

Climate Change And Business Building

COP27 has ended
and the best case scenario
for the planet’s climate
has quietly shifted
from 1.5C of warming
to about 2.4C.

This has an impact
on those of us
who are building businesses.

Coral reefs were dead
at 1.5C, for example.
2.4C means they will be dead
sooner.
As in, within the decade,
sooner.

If your business is located
close to reefs,
losing those reefs will impact
your foot traffic.

You might wish
to find alternative sources
of prospective customers.

Glaciers will also shrink
and/or disappear.
As will the polar ice caps.

There will be more natural disasters,
more drought,
more water and food shortages,
and all this will happen sooner.

Insurance coverage
for our businesses
will become more and more key.

As will ensuring
we have supplies.
If we can buy supplies
in advance,
we should likely
factor the cost of doing that
into our start up expenses.

Climate change WILL
change the way we do business.
We should plan for that.

Long-Running Charities

Yesterday, I talked about
how I keep a tally
of my contributions to charities
and their associated impacts.

Any long-running charity
should be able to provide us
with the impacts
they have made
over the years.

On the website
for #TeamTrees ,
for example,
they announce
how many trees
they’ve helped plant
thus far.

They show you
the locations
they’ve planted those trees.

They also know
how much it costs them
to plant a tree
(which is an easy calculation
– the amount spent
divided by the number of trees).

We should be able
to see the impact
of a charity
on the cause
we’re supporting.

If you’re in a leadership position
at a charity,
ensure you supply this information.

If you are a donor,
expect to see it.

Keep Track Of The Changes You’ve Helped Make

Yesterday,
I talked about finding
the right charity for you.

One of the things
that increases my joy
around giving to charity
is
keeping a tally
of my donations
and their projected impact.

For example,
I donate to
#TeamTrees .
$1 US helps to plant
1 tree.

Planting 1 tree
might not seem
like it would make
a huge difference
but planting 1 tree
a day
for 10 years
creates a mini forest
the size of a nearby park.

THAT is impressive.
THAT would make
any tree-lover happy.

Track the differences
you make
in this wonderful world.

Giving To Charity

If you’re in the happy position
where you want to give back,
you might be considering
giving to charity.

There are a gazillion
different charities
in this wonderful world.
They each have
their own causes
and their own unique ways
of interacting
with donors.

Think about the causes
you are passionate
about helping.

Craft a list
of all charities associated
with those causes.

Then start eliminating
charities
from that list.

How do you enjoy helping?
I like donating funds
anonymously, for example.
Eliminate all charities
that don’t offer that option.

How do you like
to be contacted?
I like to only
be contacted
by email.

How do you like
to be recognized
for your donation?
A loved one
likes to receive
membership perks.

Narrow down the list.

Do your research on
each perspective charity.
This is similar
to how you’d do
your research on
a perspective business partner.

Google the charity.
Look for red flags.
Ask if trusted people
have interacted with the charity, etc.

Then test one of the remaining charities
with a small donation.

Pay attention
to how you FEEL
after giving to the charity.

Giving to charity
should make you feel good.

You should be happier
after giving
than you were before giving.

That is a sign
the charity is right for you.

There are many different charities.
Choose one that works for YOU.

Evaluate Your Experts

We all have experts
we tend to trust
to give us accurate information.
We base our decisions
in business
and other aspects of life
on the things
they tell us.

At least once a year,
I evaluate these experts.
I look at their predictions
and I compare those predictions
to what actually happened.

There are health experts,
for example,
who predict
every COVID wave
will be the last one.

They’ve been wrong
again and again.

I no longer
rely on them
for information.

Evaluate your experts.
If they have always
been wrong,
assume they will be wrong
again.

Find better experts.

The Gut Check

Someone
posted on social media
last week
that climate change
was a hoax.

I had just returned
to the house
after tending to my tomato plants
in the back yard.

Normally, in the middle of November,
my back yard would be covered in snow.
My frost-fragile tomato plants
would be long dead.

My tomato plants,
last week,
were flowering.
They were happily producing
new fruit.

I didn’t waste time
investigating
the climate change denier’s claim.
My gut told me
it was wrong.

But that gut feeling,
that knowing
was based on observation,
on listening and seeing
everything around me.

If I had been stuck
in a house with no windows,
my gut feeling
would have been less reliable.

Yes, listen to your gut
but ensure your gut
has information to work with.

Feed it relevant observations.

The Need For Management Transition

There are quite a few lessons
learned
about the Elon Musk purchase
of Twitter.

One of the key lessons
is…

There should be a transition plan
for changes in management.

Musk fired the key leaders
before he knew
what the f*ck was happening
at Twitter.
He didn’t have that C-Suite’s knowledge base
or their experience.

This happens
more often than
many of us realize.
Buyers of companies
want to start fresh.
They want everything
to be new
immediately.

But starting fresh,
beginning anew
means new company revenue.

Sales are disrupted.
Customers or, in this case,
advertisers become nervous.
They decrease or stop
buying.

This decrease in revenue
is paired with
established company expenses
and expectations.

That combination
requires a lot of upfront cash.

The less expensive way
is to keep the established leadership
until the new leadership
knows the business.

Have a transition plan
for leadership.